December 23, 2015

Adventures in shipping

UPS finally delivered my garbage can, so that's now decorating my kitchen. I also ordered the second BD of the Strike the Blood OVA.

I specified Fedex Overnight, which means it should have arrived this morning. But the online tracking site says that it arrived in Memphis about an hour ago. They are still saying it's due to be delivered today, but I don't see how that can happen.

I am making allowances. For UPS and Fedex this is hell week, the worst week of the year, and I understand that it's a problem. But...

A rip of this BD showed up online this morning and I've already downloaded it. I paid a premium price for the BD and the shipping, to get it as fast as I possibly could legitimately, but I still got a bootleg sooner. I guess that means something, but I'm not totally sure what.

In the mean time I've been sitting here rewatching Yozakura Quartet. It's really a very charming show; I like it. What is coolest about it is how comfortable everyone in the town is with each other. Sakura Newtown has a large percentage of people who are not human. But they all mix together and it isn't considered remarkable by anyone. Humans and Youkai are friends and hang out together, and sometimes humans get into trouble and youkai use remarkable powers to help. So someone like Kotoha, who has what amounts to a super power, can use her abilities in public and no one is afraid of her. It's widely known that she has those powers and everyone is cool with it.

I just noticed that there's a huge jump in the story between episodes 8 and 9. The OP of episode 9 is a reprise of the stuff that they left out:
Zakuro attacks the town and there's a huge fight and ultimately she's defeated. I'm going to go look at the manga now and catch up.

UPDATE: Online tracking says the package just left Memphis, and they say I get it tomorrow. I believe that; it'll reach Portland this evening, and go to Lake Oswego before the trucks load for tomorrow's delivery -- if everything goes well. One time, at least, one of my BD packages spent a night at the Portland sorting center because they didn't notice it was supposed to be expedited. And of course, if they don't manage to deliver it tomorrow then it'll be next Monday.

UPDATE Thursday 0830: The tracking site says it's scheduled for delivery in the next two hours. It also says the package was at Lake Oswego (the local truck barn) at 0800. Did it make it onto a truck in time for delivery? My bet is "no", but we'll soon find out.

UPDATE 0930: The UPS computer seems to be horrifically backlogged. Just now I checked again and it has an 0800 entry indicating that the package is out for delivery. So I will get it today, though perhaps not before 1030.

I just finished watching the OVA and it was really good. I can see why, after it came out, they decided to do a whole cour with the same team.

It was fun seeing Kotoha going all out in a battle; she's impressive. But her ability to summon a rocket-launched bunker buster is scary as hell. In the Hana no Uta show she summons an SP gun and a couple of other massive weapons at one point, not to mention a railroad artillery piece. It's a good thing she's one of the good guys; I'm not sure they could defeat her if she went bad.

I got 35 top rotation candidates out of the OVA. And it definitely fills in a lot of questions in Hana no Uta.

5
There's also an OVA series for the manga arc after Hana no Uta. (Tsuki ni Naku) It's only DVD quality, but the final fight is pretty good. (And there's one twist in the OVA I really didn't see coming, which was very well played.)
Part of it is that the director, Ryo-timo (that's how he prefers it, apparently), is one of really well regarded animators over the past decade. That's why there's so much background animation. And it really helps with capturing the "feel" of the series. It's both serious and silly in parts, but it balances it really well.
Plus, so many of the characters are just a blast. I quite enjoy the series as well. But some of the powers on display truly are insane.

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